My kid might just be smarter than me.

My kid might just be smarter than me (and yours might be, too!)

This week Henry taught me a valuable lesson about flexibility.  You see, I am about a 90% Babywise follower.  I have found that the sleep, feed, wake cycles have really seemed to give Henry and our family a lot of stability and predictability.  Henry sleeps incredibly well, and follows a pretty great routine.

We've been following the same routine for about a month now.  Breakfast, nap, lunch, nap, snack, nap, dinner, pre-sleep bottle, then down for the night.

About a week ago, Henry started going on "nap-strike."  When we would put him down for a nap, he would fight, kick, smile, laugh, or any number of other annoyingly-cute antics to postpone his pending sleep.  We would spend 30 minutes, 40 minutes, sometimes an hour just trying to get him to sleep.  The frustrating part?  He would then only sleep for about 30 minutes.  This was exhausting!

So I decided to experiment.  I kept Henry up in the morning until he was OBVIOUSLY tired.  This was about 30-40 minutes later than we normally put him down.  He then slept for 2 hours!  I did the same thing after lunch.  I let him stay awake until it seemed he was begging to sleep, and when I put him down, VOILA! he slept for 2 more hours.

The lesson that only Henry could teach me.  Put down the books, Mom, and just listen to your child.

I wouldn't say I'm the BIGGEST control freak I know.  But I do like to have things done a certain way.  I like things to be planned and organized.  I like things to be predictable.  Change freaks me out.  And sometimes, I am my own worst enemy.  My reluctance to welcome change with open arms leads me to drag my heals and just delay fabulous blessings that come with change.

Of course, not all change is good.  But every chance for change is an opportunity.  An opportunity to abandon the status quo, take a breath, and say "Come what may."

I'm glad I'm learning this lesson when Henry is 7 months and the tipping point is something silly like nap time.

I hope to continue to apply this lesson as Henry gets older.  To abandon my ideas of what he "should" be doing, and actually HEAR him.

So, thank you, Henry, for this little nugget of truth you spoke into my life this week.  You are one smart little boy :)